Thursday 13 June 2013 10.16 EDT
First published on Thursday 13 June 2013 10.16 EDT

A wildfire fuelled by hot temperatures, gusty winds and thick, bone-dry forests has destroyed 92 homes, damaged five more and prompted more than 7,000 residents in northern Colorado to flee, sheriff's officials said.

A separate fire to the south has destroyed 20 structures, including some in Royal Gorge bridge and park, and prompted the evacuation at a medium-security prison of about 250 residents and nearly 1,000 inmates. To the north, another wildfire burned in Rocky Mountain national park.

Wildfires also were burning in New Mexico, Oregon and California, where a smokejumper – a firefighter who parachutes into remote areas from aeroplanes – was killed fighting one of dozens of lightning-caused fires.

Crews were so busy battling blazes across the west that the US Forest Service said on Wednesday it was mobilising a pair of defence department cargo planes to help – a step taken only when all of the Forest Service's contracted tankers are in use.

A DC-10 Air Tanker drops fire-retardant near a home in the Black Forest, near Colorado Springs. Photograph: Bryan Oller/AP

The fire near Colorado Springs, one of several that broke out on Tuesday along Colorado's Front range, has prompted evacuation orders and pre-evacuation notices to between 9,000 and 9,500 people and about 3,500 homes and businesses, sheriff's officials said.

Some Colorado Springs residents were warned to be ready to move out, mostly because of a fear of flying embers spreading the fire into the state's second-largest city. Sheriff's officials also evacuated part of neighbouring Elbert County, including two camps with a total of about 1,250 children and adults.

Bits of ash and the smell of smoke drifted into Denver, about 60 miles (100km) to the north, where the haze blocked the sun.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, but the El Paso county sheriff, Terry Maketa, said officials were trying to confirm the whereabouts of one person reported missing on Wednesday. Firefighters tried to go where the person was last seen but were turned back twice because of the heat, he said.

Maketa said he was worried about those who chose to ignore evacuation orders and stay behind. "One of my worst fears is that people took their chances and it may have cost them their life," he said.

The area is not far from last summer's Waldo canyon fire that destroyed 346 homes and killed two people.

Black Forest firefighters burn off natural ground fuel in an evacuated neighborhood in the Black Forest area north of Colorado Springs. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/AP

The Forest Service mobilised specially equipped defence department C-130s to drop slurry on wildfires in the west after all 12 of its air tankers were deployed. At least one was fighting the Black Forest fire.

By law, the Modular Airborne Firefighting System (Maffs) planes can be deployed only when all of the Forest Service's contracted tankers are in use. Around this time last year, the aircraft sat on runways when massive wildfires burned in Colorado and New Mexico.

In north-east California, a 28-year-old man was fatally injured this week by part of a falling tree in Modoc National Forest. Luke Sheehy, from Susanville, California, was a member of the Redding-based California Smokejumpers – firefighters who parachute into remote areas from airplanes.

In New Mexico, a wildfire burning in the steep, narrow canyons of the Pecos wilderness north of Santa Fe grew to more than 12 sq miles on Wednesday. It was burning about 10 miles south-east of some small communities. Crews planned to build fire lines and clear out fuel in key areas miles ahead of the blaze in hopes of protecting the communities if the fire heads that way.

In south-western New Mexico, firefighters were trying to keep a massive wildfire from reaching an old mining town whose 45 or so residents have been evacuated. That fire was burning in a mountainous area of dense forest.

Another fire sparked by lightning on Monday in Rocky Mountain national park has grown to an estimated 400 acres (160 hectares) in area with trees killed by pine beetles.

The cause of the fire near Colorado Springs was not clear. The El Paso county sheriff said there were no reports of lightning on Tuesday.

Governor John Hickenlooper declared disaster emergencies on Wednesday for the Black Forest and Royal Gorge fires and a 60-acre (25-hectare) fire in rural Huerfano County, authorising a combined $10.15m to help pay for firefighting and other costs.